Hon. Michael G. Oxley: “The efforts that the committee and the entire Congress made in antiterrorism legislation clearly is one of the most…”

“The efforts that the committee and the entire Congress made in antiterrorism legislation clearly is one of the most important bills that will pass the Congress this year. It is no secret that after 9/11, the reinsurance industry, which is mostly offshore, indicated they would no longer write terrorism insurance. Since they are the insurers of the insurers, it meant that the domestic-based insurance companies were unable to spread their risk and as a result we have a crisis in insurance coverage for terrorism. That crisis has evidenced itself in many ways, not the least of which is a recent study that indicated over $15 billion in valuable projects are on hold, not going forward, because of the lack of terrorism insurance; and because they cannot get terrorism insurance, they cannot get lending for those projects. We are not just talking, Mr. Speaker, about New York City. I was recently in Chicago. There is a major project going on in Chicago that is simply now just a hole in the ground that will employ several hundred people. The President has indicated that their studies indicate some 300,000 jobs are at stake in the construction industry, the realtors, lenders and the like. So in many, many ways this is an economic issue and a jobs issue.”